Shipping container for fragile articles

ABSTRACT

A shipping container for generally disk-shape fragile articles comprising a generally cup-shape base having a bottom wall and an upright side wall, a generally cup-shape cover having a top wall and a depending side wall disposed in a telescoping relation with the base side wall and a plurality of rubber bands trained about brackets supported on the top and bottom walls so as to form a plurality of flexible strips arranged in opposed frusto-conical patterns in which they can support a disk-shape article therebetween so as to maintain the article in a spaced relation with the container walls.

United States Patent Thomas [54] SHIPPING CONTAINER FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES [72] Inventor: Neal C. Thomas, Brighton, Mich. [73] Assignee: The Bendix Corporation [22] Filed: Jan. 11, 1971 [211 App]. No.: 105,501

52 us. C1. ..206/46 FR, 206/016. 8 51 im. Cl. ..B65d 8'5/00 581 Field 6: Search ..206/1 R, 46 FR, 46 u, 62 R,

206/65 F, DIG. s, 18, 65 A [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 856,463 6/1907 Goss et a1. ..206/18 3,055,495 9/1962 Naimer ..206/46 FR 1,842,034 1/1932 Lewis ..206/46 FR 3,586,158 6/1971 Muscatiello ..206/16A 2,977,043 3/1961 Scheldorf ..206/46 FR FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 9/1938 Great Britain ..206/46 FR 6 870,122 3/1942 France ..206/D1G. 6 901,507 7/1962 Great Britain ..206/46 FR 489,945 8/1938 Great Britain ..206/46 FR 500,562 2/1939 Great Britain ..206/46 FR Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, .lr.

Assistant Examiner-Edwin D. Grant Attorney-William F. Thornton, James E. Stephenson and Plante, l-lartz, Smith & Thompson [57] ABSTRACT A shipping container for generally disk-shapefragile articles comprising a generally cup-shape base having a bottom wall and an upright side wall, a generally cup-shape cover having a top wall and a depending side wall disposed in a telescoping relation with the base side wall and a plurality of rubber bands trained about brackets supported on the top and bottom walls so as to form a plurality of flexible strips arranged in opposed frusto-conical patterns in which they can support a disk-shape article therebetween so as to maintain the article in a spaced relation with the container walls.

11 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures SHIPPING CONTAINER FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES The principal object of this invention is to provide a shipping container'for fragile, sensitive articles which will resiliently support the article by contacting the article at a minimum number of points, will act as a shock absorber to prevent damage to the article during handling of the shipping container, and can be hermetically sealed to prevent contaminants from contacting the article.

The shipping container of this invention consists of a cup-shape base having a flat bottom wall and an upright side wall, a similar cup-shape cover having a topwall and a depending side wall disposed in a telescoping relation with the base side wall, and a plurality of rubber bands mounted on the top and bottom walls so that a disk-shape article to be shipped can be supported in a relatively fixed position on the rubber bands within the container. A plurality of wire brackets are secured to the top wall so that they project downwardly toward the bottom wall and a plurality of similar wire brackets are mounted on the bottom wall so that they project upwardly toward the top wall at positions in between the brackets mounted on the top wall. Each bracket is shaped so that a rubber band can be trained thereabout to position the rubber band in a generally triangular path. The result is a plurality of flexible rubber strips on the bottom wall arranged in a generally frusto-conical pattern and a similar pattern of frusto-conical strips on the top wall, with the strips on the bottom wall being independent of and positioned between the strips on the top wall. A disk-shape article to be shipped can then be placed within the container in a supported position on the flexible strips which thus function to absorb shocktype loads applied to the container and prevent the transmission of these loads to the article being shipped. Since the article being shipped is contacted only by the flexible strips, it is supported at a minimum number of points to thus preclude the possibility of damage to the article by virtue of its contact with the supports within the container. Since the base and cover include telescoping side walls, the container is readily hermetically sealed to keep contaminants out of the container which might have an adverse effect on the article being shipped.

Further objects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the shipping container of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an internal plan view of the base in the shipping container of this invention;

. FIG. 3 is an internal plan view of the cover in the shipping container of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view of the shipping container of this invention, as seen from substantially the line 4--4 in FIG. 1, showing additional support brackets and bands in broken lines and showing an article in supported position within the container; and

' FIGS. 5 and 6 are enlarged fragmentary sectional views of the base and cover, respectively, in the container of this invention as seen from the lines 5-5 and 6-6 in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively.

With reference to the drawing, the shipping container of this invention, indicated generally at 10, is illustrated in FIG. 1 as including a base 12 and a cover 14, both of which are of generally cup shape. As shown in FIG. 4, the base 12 has a flat circular bottom wall 16 and an upstanding side wall 18. The cover 14 has a top wall 20 and a depending side wall 22 disposed in a telescoping relation with the base side wall 18 when the base 12 and the cover 14 are assembled to form the container 10. As shown in FIG. 1, a generally U-shape locating bracket 24 is secured to the base side wall 16 and extends upwardly therefrom to receive a downwardly extending locating pin 26 secured to the cover side wall 22 so that the base 12 and the cover 14 can be repeatedly assembled in the same relative positions. While the bracket 24 and the pin 26 are shown as being secured to the base 12 and the cover 14, respectively, it is to be understood that these components can also be formed as integral parts of the base 12 and the cover 14 by suitably shaping the base and cover during manufacture thereof.

A plurality of brackets 28, three of which are utilized in the illustrated embodiment of the invention, are mounted on the base bottom wall 16 in the equally spaced relation shown in FIG. 2. Each bracket 28 supports a flexible band 30, preferably formed of rubber, which may be looped one or more times about the bracket 28 so that it is in tension for a purpose to appear presently. A bracket 28 consists of a wire body 32 having a pair of legs 34 which extend generally radially of the base bottom wall 16 and have their inner ends located adjacent the center of the base 16. At their inner ends, the legs 34 are bent upwardly and inwardly to form a projection 36 spaced a predetermined distance above the base bottom wall 16. The outer or diverged ends of the legs 34 are provided with upwardly projecting extensions 38 which terminate in projections 40 spaced above the base bottom wall 16 a distance greater than the spacing of the projection 36. The projections 36 and 40 thus form three support points about which the rubber band 30 is trained so as to locate the rubber band 30 in a generally triangular path inclined radially downwardly and inwardly relative to the base bottom wall 16. The downwardly and inwardly extending legs 42 of the three rubber bands 30 thus form a generally frusto-conical pattern of flexible strips on which a disk-shape article, such as the one indicated at 44 in FIG. 4, can be supported. with only six points on the lower peripheral edge of the article 44 actually contacting the strips 42.

The cover 14 is similarly provided with a plurality of brackets 46 which are identical to the brackets 28 and are secured to the cover top wall 20. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, three brackets 46 are employed arranged in an equally spaced relation on the cover top wall 20. The spacing between the brackets 46 is greater than the space occupied by the brackets 46 thus enabling the brackets 28 to be positioned inbetween the brackets 46 when the cover 14 is assembled with the base 12. Likewise, each bracket 46 supports a rubber band 48 which is under tension and is identical to the rubber bands 30 previously described so that the three rubber bands 48 on the brackets 46 cooperate to provide a downwardly extending frustoconical pattern of flexible strips 50 which are reversely inclined relative to the flexible strips .42 previously described on the base 12. Thus, when the cover 14 is assembled on the base 12, with the pin 26 projecting into the bracket 24, the upper peripheral edge of the article 44 will be contacted at six points by the strips 40, with these six points being circumferentially spaced from the six points at which the article is engaged by the strips 42. The article 44 is thus resiliently held by the strips 42 and 50 in a relatively fixed position in the container 10.

From the above description it is seen that this invention provides an improved shipping container in which the article 44 to be shipped is fully supported on inclined resilient strips 42 and 50 so that any shock loads transmitted to the container during shipment are absorbed by the strips 42 and 50 to thus preclude damage to the article 44. Furthermore, the container 10 is economically formed by mounting the brackets 28 and 46 on the base 12 and the cover 14 and then mounting the rubber bands and 48 on the brackets 28 and 46, respectively. The brackets 28 and are readily formed by bending a wire body such as the body 32 and securing it to the desired container wall by welding, adhesives, or the like. During use of the container 10, worn out rubber bands 30 and 48 are readily replaced. By virtue of the telescoping relation of the side walls 18 and 22, the container 10 is readily hermetically sealed at the lower edge of the wall 22 to keep contaminants out of the container 10.

I claim:

1. A container for shipping a fragile article, comprising a base member and a cover member, flexible band means, means for securing the flexible band means to each of the members with the-flexible band means on one member reversely inclined with respect to and extending inwardly of thecontainer beyond the flexible band means on the other member and with the flexible band means resiliently supporting the article in spaced relation to the members.

2. A shipping container according to claim 1 wherein said flexible band means includes a plurality of rubber bands mounted independently on said base and .cover members. I V

3. A shipping container as described in claim 1 in which the flexible band. means on one member are disposed generally between the flexible band means on the other member.

4. A shipping container according to claim 3 further including bracket means mounting each of said bands on one of saidwalls so that each of said bands is under tension and is disposed in a substantially triangular path.

5. A shipping container according to claim 4 wherein each of said triangular paths has a pair of legs which convergetoward each other in a direction inwardly of said container.

6. A shipping container according to claim 3 further including coacting locating means on said base and said cover providing for said disposition of said bands on assembly of said cover on said base.

7. A shipping container for generally disk-shape fragile articles, comprising a generally cup-shape base having a bottom wall and an upright side wall, a generally cup-shape cover having a top wall and a depending side wall disposed in a telescoping relation with said base side wall, flexible band means on said top and bottom walls arranged to form a plurality of flexible overlapping strips reverse] inclined to said side walls and arranged o resilien y support a dlsk-shape article in spaced relation with said walls.

8. A shipping container according to claim 7 wherein said flexible band means comprises a plurality of endless rubber bands mounted independently on said top and bottom walls.

9. A shipping container according to claim 8 further including a plurality of bracket members mounted on said top and bottom walls, each of said bracket members having one of said endless rubber bands mounted thereon.

10. A shipping container according to claim 9 wherein each of said bracket members comprise a wire body having a pair of leg portions secured to and extending generally radially of one of said top and bottom walls, said leg portions being positioned at their radially inner ends adjacent the center of said one wall and being formed at said inner ends with a'rubber band retaining projection spaced from said one wall a predetermined distance, said legs being formed at their radially outer ends with spaced extensions which terminate in rubber band retaining projections spaced a distance from said wall greater than said predetermined distance whereby an endless rubber band trained about said projections is positioned in a generally triangular path.

11. A shipping container according to claim 10 wherein three of said brackets and endless bands are mounted on each of said top and bottom walls in substantially equally spaced positions in which the space between adjacent brackets is greater than the space occupied by each bracket. 

1. A container for shipping a fragile article, comprising a base member and a cover member, flexible band means, means for securing the flexible band means to each of the members with the flexible band means on one member reversely inclined with respect to and extending inwardly of the container beyond the flexible band means on the other member and with the flexible band means resiliently supporting the article in spaced relation to the members.
 2. A shipping container according to claim 1 wherein said flexible band means includes a plurality of rubber bands mounted independently on said base and cover members.
 3. A shipping container as described in claim 1 in which the flexible band means on one member are disposed generally between the flexible band means on the other member.
 4. A shipping container according to claim 3 further including bracket means mounting each of said bands on one of said walls so that each of said bands is under tension and is disposed in a substantially triangular path.
 5. A shipping container according to claim 4 wherein each of said triangular paths has a pair of legs which converge toward each other in a direction inwardly of said container.
 6. A shipping container according to claim 3 further including coacting locating means on said base and said cover providing for said disposition of said bands on assembly of said cover on said base.
 7. A shipping container for generally disk-shape fragile articles, comprising a generally cup-shape base having a bottom wall and an upright side wall, a generally cup-shape cover having a top wall and a depending side wall disposed in a telescoping relation with said base side wall, flexible band means on said top and bottom walls arranged to form a plurality of flexible overlapping strips reversely inclined to said side walls and arranged to resiliently support a disk-shape article in spaced relation with said walls.
 8. A shipping container according to claim 7 wherein said flexible band means comprises a plurality of endless rubber bands mounted independently on said top and bottom walls.
 9. A shipping container according to claim 8 further including a plurality of bracket members mounted on said top and bottom walls, each of said bracket members having one of said endless rubber bands mounted thereon.
 10. A shipping container according to claim 9 wherein each of said bracket members comprise a wire body having a pair of leg portions secured to and extending generally radially of one of said top and bottom walls, said leg portions being positioned at their radially inner ends adjacent the center of said one wall and being formed at said inner ends with a rubber band retaining projection spaced from said one wall a predetermined distance, said legs being formed at their radially outer ends with spaced extensions which terminate in rubber band retaining projections spaced a distance from said wall greater than said predetermined distance whereby an endless rubber band trained about said projections is positioned in a generally triangular path.
 11. A shipping container according to claim 10 wherein three of said brackets and endless bands are mounted on each of said top and bottom walls in substantially equally spaced positions in which the space between adjacent brackets is greater than the space occupied by each bracket. 